The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1887-02-04
THE SYMPATHETIC SNAIL TRICK.
Chapter of Amusement for Lovers, Rel
atiyes and Friends.

To give a person a lock Of your hair,
or, as in China, pairing OF your finger
nail, is to show your perfect trust and
confidence in him Tor herr by putting
yourself implicitly and entirely in his (or
herr power and safe keeping.
Whatever has once belonged to any,
body, and far more therefore whatever
has once formed an actual physical part
of his person, puts its present pOsSc-sOr
so fully en- rapport with the original
owner that he can to a great extent con-
troll that owners dcstiuics.
In all magical ceremonies, whatever
their purport-whether to ayenge ones
self upon ones enemy, or to gain the
favor Of the unkind and irrespousive
object of ones affections. or to bring back
the heart of ones now faithlesS lover
it is almost necessary TO throw into the
mystic caldron, or TO burn with the fatcd
image, a lock of the persons hair, or
rag of his clothing, or at the very least
something OF other that has once be-
lonEed to him.
Here is a little. illustrative modern
superstition which may help to make
clearer the frame of mind that renders
such strange forms of belief even now
possible.
1t is known as the sympathetic snail
trick. Te communicate with your lover
at a distance, take two snails, and feed
them on lettuce in a box together for
week or ten days before his departure
for parts unknown. Then let your lover
take one of the snails with him, while
you keep the other in n box at home.
Arrange beforehand q fixed day and
hour for communicating with one an
other, and at that hour take your own
snail out of Its box and lay it on a slip of
paper on which you have written out
copy of the alphabet Ut shows the an
tiquity OF the superstition that the letters
must be capitals, in Roman form, not in
script handJ
Induce the snail to travel along the
line up to the letter you wish to halt at
(the inducement usually assuming prac-
teal shape in the point of PIN, and
then stop him.
II the experiment has been properly
performed, your lovers snail (pUt out
similarly at the same moment. like a
mOlluscan travcSty of the COrsican
Brothers) will travel along the CORE
spending slip and stop accurately at the
same letter.
You can thus spell out as many words as
you choose in the exact easy and cOnven-
lent fashion which the departed human
spirit has Independently invented for cor
responding through the medium of a 3
O'Clock tea table with its surviving rela-
tives.
If the communication doesn't come off.
that is because your absent lover, faith
less man, has forgotten or neglected the
appointed hour, or has ceased to love
you, or has otherwise in some way or
manner miScOnductcd himself
Perhaps, also, in the case of places far
distant from one another such as Eng
land and Australia, sufficient care may
not always be taken by the unscientific
swain TO insure the correction of the local
hour to Greenwich mean time; and the
sympathetic snail may thus be made TO
walk about necdlessly in his box at dead
Ot night while lis companion at the other
side of the world is rejoicing in the full
enjoyment OF the antipOdal noontide.-
lLongman's Magazine. -